I'd rather be having a quiet drink... and can be followed on Twitter @alcothusiast; and friended on Untappd (handle: "neilcake" - all welcome).

Sunday, 5 April 2015

Highland Park Einar

A lot of the reviews
I’ve seen online bang on about the origin of the name that Highland Park have bestowed
upon this “exclusive to international travel” expression and its brethren.
Frankly, in my opinion, that’s all tantamount to bollocks, so I’m not going to
tell you anything about that at all. Nothing bores me more than regurgitating
factual information that already exists elsewhere on the internet, though sadly
I have to do that sometimes just to keep on the right side of informative.

When I do a search
for the product I’m writing about – as I always do to get some basic
information and opinion about it – I find that a staggering amount of the
detail is lifted directly from the manufacturer’s marketing information, so not
only does it seem pointless adding my voice to the existing clamour but neither
am I in the business of marketing products. A bit of background is ok, but does
something like the origin of the name really matter? Do pharmaceutical
companies tell you where the name for their latest pile cream came from?

Good, now that we’ve
got that out of the way, what do I want to tell you? Well, as you would know if
you’d read some of my previous posts, I’d been a-hankerin’ after this one for a
while. I just really like Highland Park ok? And the fact that you have to
travel between two countries to be able to get it just made me want it so much.

And here it is. I
have to say, the couple of minutes leading up to purchasing it were pretty
exciting but then, as ever, the excitement subsided and it sat quietly in my
cupboard awaiting the day I would open it.

Einar then is bottled at a disappointing 40% ABV and comes by the litre at
around 50 euros. When I purchased mine it equated to somewhere around 42 quid.
I consider that decent value (quality appraisal pending), but when you consider
how frequently you can get 70cl of the excellent 12 year old HP for £25…
perhaps it isn’t so much – but then, very little you can purchase in the UK can
compare to that. I’m not even expecting
this to be better than the HP12, but I hope it is.

Upon feeling low one
Friday night I decided it was time for the grand opening… and a cigar, in the
garden. Not necessarily ideal circumstances for a deep appraisal, but there’s a
whole litre of the Einar here, so plenty of time. I sat out there with the
bottle available for refills, as I so seldom end up doing and got started.

I’ve read that
pineapple is evident on the nose, and while I was disappointed to note that no
smell emerged from the bottle on opening, I can confirm I was actually getting
pineapple once it was in the glass (though this may have been the power of
suggestion, since it failed to attend any other time), and later tobacco (you
might be thinking that was down to the cigar and, reading this back now, I can’t
remember anything that would refute that. I’m thinking though, that such an
assumption would be so obvious that I must have actually written it for a
reason). On other occasions there was that familiar Highland Park peat on
opening, though understandably less powerfully than in the HP18.

I didn’t involve the
Einar in a direct comparison with any of my malts straight away, knowing that
it would need time to breathe before such a stringent test was conducted. Taken
on its own merits then, I have to say I came to enjoy it very much on that
first occasion. Each sip was more enjoyable than the last. It is a little thin
and rough on entry but, like the 12 year old, when I shifted it around the the
back of my tongue it had that playful tartness that gets the taste buds jiving
– a feature I have come to associate with Highland Park more than any other. It
came to remind me at the time – and this is a weird one – of the Bolognese
sauce that I make with Worcestershire sauce and red wine vinegar.

I was never going to
say it’s better than the 12 year old, in fact it definitely isn’t, but the 12
year old is so good that if it could be even nearly as good (but suitably different), that would be commendable.
It is slightly more expensive in general on a £ per cl basis but on the same
basis it works out cheaper than the Glenfiddich 15 Solera Vat that I paid £30
for. In fact it is currently only 13th overall on the price per cl
matrix

.

Yes, it would be nice
if it were better, but I didn’t immediately feel disappointed with Highland
Park for putting this out.

Moment of Maximum Appreciation

The night I feel I
got the best from the Einar, I’d been
out for a curry with work and had a couple of small beers. On arriving home a
bit grumpy (because I’d had to stay out longer than I wanted to), I thought I
might just finish off the night with something from the cupboard. In all
honesty I was pretty thirsty and normally I’d have a glass of cola first but,
knowing that would have some effect on the enjoyment of whatever I chose to
drink next (unless I was prepared to wait half an hour, which I wasn’t), I
thought I’d skip it this time.

So I went for the Einar. On this occasion, circumstances combined
to produce a very satisfying glass. The Einar
was soft and sweet and, for once, the overly rough edges didn’t linger.
Instead the impression was far more in line from what I’d expect from a
Highland Park.

It still wasn’t as
good as the 12, nor as sweet and buttery as the 18 but pleasingly intense and
mouth-wateringly playful. It’s moments like these, I thought, that you spend
that bit extra on liquor for. Any 40% spirit can get you hammered or just chill
you out, you’ve no need to spend £40 to £50 for that. And you may not get it
every time, but if you can, occasionally reach something like the satisfaction
I got from that glass, then you can occasionally feel that it was money well
spent.

An ignoble denouement

Apologies for the
big words. Who do I think I am, Russell
Fucking Brand? But yeah, there’s no happy ending to this tale and the
upshot of it is: you’d be better off spending your money elsewhere. The reason:
it just failed to deliver on a consistent basis. In fact, the MOMA described in
the last section was the only time I
can say I enjoyed the Einar to any superlative degree. In general it was rough,
fuzzy, sour… honestly, I hope you’ve bothered reading this far because otherwise
you’re going to get the wrong impression.

No, I didn’t immediately feel disappointed, but ultimately I did. I seldom chose to
invite it out of the cupboard, wondering why when I had. In the end I just
poured a few (what I’m going to call) throwaway glasses on consecutive
occasions just so that I could call it finished and move on to something else –
which will actually be the (significantly more expensive) Highland Park Leif
Eriksson, so keep coming back if you want to find out about that…

No, it just had me
sat there wondering whether I really enjoy drinking whisky far too often. I do
enjoy whisky, just not this one. Sad really.

Definitions

What happens when you zone out after having had a cheeky lunchtime pint.

Alcothusiast:

Not an alcoholic, someone who appreciates booze.

Anxiety, The:

The uneasy feeling that accompanies any noteworthy hangover.

Booze Buffet Mentality:

The propensity people have to go nuts whenever there's a free bar.

Booze Porn:Photos of alcohol.

Bread Chest:Not booze related, but this term describes the indigestion you get from eating too many bread products too quickly. Just putting it out there...

Crawler's Block:The inability to decide where to go next during a pub crawl - often resulting in crawl stagnation and someone saying, "shall we just have another one here?"

Crawl Stagnation:The result of failing to plan a pub crawl sufficiently - lack of a route, theme or over-familiarity with nearby pubs can all be contributing factors.

Excess Induced Alcohol Aversion:An intolerance for a drink caused (usually) by one occasion of overindulgence.

The Family:My whisky collection.

MOMA:

Moment of Maximum Appreciation. Every bottle has one. It's the time you drink it where you enjoy it most.

Old Man Pub:Traditional British pub, renowned for being quiet, cosy and frequented by old men. Much favoured by people who like a nice chat while they drink.Psychological Drinks Cabinet:Collective term relating to the kinds of alcoholic drinks a person has need for.Road Beers:

Cans of beer that you take with you when you go out, to consume on the way.

The 3 Types of Rum:White, gold and dark. Together they form the base of many a great cocktail.

About Me

Neil Cake is interested in all types of booze, but is by no means an authority or expert. Most of the time he's just trying to be funny, but he is learning, and enjoys sharing his adventures and what he learns on the Drink it How You Like it blog.
Thengyuverrymuuuuuch.